In the retail industry, the largest expenditures are typically the cost of the goods sold followed closely by the cost of labor expended. With particular regard to the retail grocery or supermarket industry, the impetus to reduce labor costs has focused on reducing or eliminating the amount of time required to handle and/or process the items or goods to be purchased by a customer. To this end, there have been a number of self-service checkout terminal concepts developed which attempt to substantially eliminate the need for a checkout clerk.
A self-service checkout terminal is a system which is operated by a customer without the aid of a checkout clerk. In such a system, the customer scans individual items for purchase across a scanner and then places the scanned item into a grocery bag, if desired. The customer then pays for his or her purchase either at the self-service checkout terminal if equipped, or at a central payment area which is staffed by a store employee. Thus, a self-service checkout terminal permits a customer to select, itemize, and in some cases pay for his or her purchase without the assistance of the retailer's personnel.
A customer typically has little or no training in the operation of a self-service checkout terminal prior to his or her initial use of the checkout terminal. One concern that retailers have when evaluating a self-service checkout terminal is the level of supervision provided to inexperienced customers. Moreover, it is also known that some customers may have improper intentions when using a self-service checkout terminal. In traditional checkout systems, the clerk employed by the retailer to operate the checkout terminal provides a level of security against theft or other improprieties. However, in the case of a self-service checkout terminal, the terminal itself must provide the necessary security.
One security concern which is particularly important to retailers is the situation in which a customer attempts to walk away from the self-service checkout terminal (presumably with a number of items) prior to tendering payment for his or her items for purchase. In traditional checkout systems, the clerk employed by the retailer to operate the checkout terminal monitors or otherwise ensures that the customer pays for his or her items for purchase prior to walking away from the checkout terminal. However, in the case of a self-service checkout terminal, the terminal itself must provide security against such “walk away” improprieties by the customer.
It should also be appreciated that in certain circumstances the customer is not attempting to commit an impropriety such as theft merely because he or she walked away from the checkout terminal prior to tendering payment for his or her items for purchase. For example, prior to tendering payment, the customer may realize that he or she forgot an item that he or she desired to purchase and may therefore return to the shopping area of the store to retrieve the item before completing the transaction. Moreover, during operation of the checkout terminal, the customer may walk away from the checkout terminal to have a conversation with a store employee, friend, or the like with the intent to return to the checkout terminal to complete his or her checkout transaction.
What is needed therefore is an apparatus and method for operating a self-service checkout terminal which overcomes one or more of the above-mentioned drawbacks. What is particularly needed is a method and apparatus for determining if a user walks away from a self-service checkout terminal during operation thereof with an intent to commit an impropriety such as theft.